Photo by Mary Kliwinski Photo by Mary Kliwinski Photo by Mary Kliwinski Photo by Mary Kliwinski Photo by Mary Kliwinski Photo by Mary Kliwinski Photo by Mary Kliwinski Photo by Mary Kliwinski Photo by Mary Kliwinski Photo by Mary Kliwinski

We published a first version of this light-hearted piece in early 1996 in our old ‘Burpee Home Gardener’ magazine.  However, I announced later that I was actually forming the Garden Party—and I did!  The Philadelphia Inquirer covered it and CBS radio interviewed me “on the street” in Chicago, where I attended a few small rallies […]

Photo by Mary Kliwinski Photo by Mary Kliwinski Photo by Mary Kliwinski Photo by Mary Kliwinski Photo by Mary Kliwinski Photo by Mary Kliwinski Photo by Mary Kliwinski Photo by Mary Kliwinski Photo by Mary Kliwinski Photo by Mary Kliwinski Photo by Mary Kliwinski Photo by Mary Kliwinski

Photo by Mary Kliwinski Photo by Mary Kliwinski Photo by Mary Kliwinski Photo by Mary Kliwinski Photo by Mary Kliwinski Photo by Mary Kliwinski Photo by Mary Kliwinski Photo by Mary Kliwinski Photo by Mary Kliwinski Photo by Mary Kliwinski Photo by Mary Kliwinski Photo by Mary Kliwinski And above Butterfly Hill… Photo by Mary […]

Photo by Mary Kliwinski Photo by Mary Kliwinski Photo by Mary Kliwinski Photo by Mary Kliwinski Photo by Mary Kliwinski Photo by Mary Kliwinski Photo by Mary Kliwinski Photo by Mary Kliwinski

“Bamboo” view from the south Photo by Kenneth Ek The artist, Steve Tobin, found unusually patterned scrap metal up near Reading. There used to be dozens of steel mills and hundreds of fabrication shops in southeastern PA, an embarrassment of riches to a sculptor. “Bamboo” view from the north Photo by Kenneth Ek I worked […]

Native Americans use this word to describe a tactic of absurd contrariness that conveys a ground level wisdom.  For instance, if a husband offends his wife, she may become “heyoka”.  When he’s hungry, she serves him a bowl of dirt; when he wishes to sleep, she noisily cleans the house; when he finally awakes, she […]

Steve Tobin has been my friend for almost 20 years, during which time I’ve watched his work change from glass to metal, and from large to enormous. We decided to exhibit some of his latest sculpture for the next 18 months on our lawns and meadows here at Fordhook Farm in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. The following […]

I just spent a long weekend attending a wedding in San Francisco at the Embarcadero Hyatt down near the water, the old Ferry Building and the Bay Bridge. The city rises up from there so I walked a lot—up to Chinatown, North Beach and over to the old Tenderloin, as well as along the Embarcadero, […]

Photo by Dean Fosdick This is the study where our founder, W. Atlee Burpee, wrote the Burpee annual seed and plant catalogues from 1889, when he bought Fordhook Farm and moved his family up from Philadelphia, until his passing away in 1915. From 1875 to 1888, he wrote them in his small office in the […]